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Offering an important addition to existing critiques of governance feminism and carceral expansion based mainly on experiences from the Global North, this book critically addresses feminist law reform on violence against women, from a decolonial perspective. Challenging the consensus that penal expansion is mainly associated with the co-option of feminist campaigns to counteract violence against women in the context of neoliberal globalisation, this book shows that long-standing colonial narratives underlie many of today's dominant legal discourses justifying criminalisation, even in countries whose governments have called themselves "leftist" and "post-neoliberal". Mapping the history of law reform on violence against women in Ecuador, the book reveals how the conciliation between feminist campaigns and criminalisation strategies takes place through liberal legality, the language of human rights, and the discourse of constitutional guarantees, across the political spectrum. Whilst human rights make violence against women intelligible in mainstream legal terms, the book shows that the emergence of a "rights-based penality" produces a benign, formally innocuous criminal law, which can be presented as progressive, but in practice reproduces colonial and postcolonial paradigms that limit and reshape feminist demands. The book raises new questions on the complex social and political factors that impact on feminist law reform projects, as it demonstrates how colonial assumptions about gender, race, class, and the family remain embedded in liberal criminal law. This theoretically and empirically informed analysis makes an innovative contribution to feminist legal theory, post-colonial studies, and criminal law; and will be of interest to activists, scholars and policymakers working at the intersections between gender equality, law, and violence in Latin America and beyond

This article presents empirical findings addressing the gap between specialised criminal laws on violence against women (VAW) in Ecuador and women's actual needs and expectations when approaching the country's specialised penal courts. Given its comprehensive legal system, Ecuador scores highly in protecting women from violence in international rankings. However, based on quantitative data, qualitative case file analysis, and in-depth interviews with survivors, judges, case-workers and judicial employees, this study reveals that, in Ecuador, most lawsuits are dropped without ever reaching a resolution. Because most survivors pursue protection from ongoing violence rather than a conviction, and because advancing a lawsuit can be a source of various forms of stress and fear, survivors usually withdraw from the trial once they are granted a protection order. Nevertheless, this order is lost when complainants fail to appear in court. In addition, police intervention is inadequate and seldom contributes to the effective protection of women. The paper thus augments debates on 'carceral feminism', showing that VAW laws are not necessarily bolstering the carceral apparatus on the ground. However, law does mask the state's disregard toward women's lived experiences and their lack of access to services that could ensure their protection and safety.

This article asks if the incorporation of Sumak Kawsay, a concept from Andean philosophy, into the Constitution of Ecuador, has impacted the legal regulation of violence against women. It examines the trajectory of penal reform in the field of domestic violence and suggests that the decolonial shift in the Constitution has failed to significantly disrupt the dominant framework of penality in which gender violence regulation is inscribed. At the same time, feminist demands have been reframed through the formations of criminal law and the dominant political discourse, resulting in provisions that reproduce a positivistic logic and a family protection rationality, with problematic consequences for women's access to justice on the ground. If securing success in legal reform entails translating emancipatory demands into established and unchallenged penal paradigms, the potential of decolonial notions is overshadowed by the language, formalities and underlying assumptions of criminal law.

Este artículo presenta un análisis crítico de discurso aplicado a dos sistemas internacionales de derechos humanos (DDHH) en el ámbito de la violencia contra las mujeres (VCM). Se analizaron cualitativamente convenciones, jurisprudencia y materiales comunicacionales de organismos europeos e interamericanos. Los resultados sugieren una "juridificación" de las respuestas a la VCM y revelan cómo se constituye una penalidad basada en DDHH. Este modelo le atribuye múltiples virtudes a la respuesta penal, caracterizando su activación como diligencia debida. Tal paradigma tiende a marginar las experiencias de las víctimas/sobrevivientes, soslaya la violencia que ejerce el aparato penal y debilita posibles enfoques redistributivos, basados en derechos económicos y sociales. Se sugiere que estos se profundicen en una futura agenda de investigación.

Este artículo examina momentos claves de la historia de la legislación ecuatoriana sobre la violencia contra las mujeres en el siglo XX. Revela cómo las construcciones coloniales y poscoloniales de la femineidad han travesado al derecho y a los discursos jurídicos durante el siglo pasado. El ideal europeo de la mujer-madre, cristiana, blanco-mestiza, de clase media-alta, sexualmente recatada, se introdujo a través de la colonización y se consolidó después de la independencia, emergiendo como eje crucial para la construcción de un Estado-nación unitario, a través de la protección legal a la familia. La producción de lo femenino como nextricablemente ligado a la procreación y a la crianza, por una parte, facilitó la recepción estatal de las propuestas de los movimientos de mujeres para combatir la violencia contra las mujeres hacia finales del siglo XX, pero al mismo tiempo produjo una representación de la violencia contra las mujeres como un atentado contra la armonía familiar. Esto genera el riesgo de excluir de la esfera de protección del derecho a personas cuyos cuerpos racializados, engenerizados y precarizados no corresponden al paradigma de la mujer de familia digna de ser protegida, riesgo de muy probable proyección hacia las leyes sobre violencia de género del siglo XXI. Palabras clave:Violencia contra las mujeres, Ecuador, feminismo decolonial, violencia familiar, siglo veinte. AbstractThis paper examines key moments in the history of Ecuadorian legislation on violence against women during the 20th century. It reveals how colonial and postcolonial constructions of femininity have crossed historical law and juridical discourses. The European ideal of the woman-mother, Christian, White-mestiza, of upper middle class, sexually contained, was introduced through colonisation and consolidated after the Independence, emerging as a crucial axis for the construction of the unitary Nation-State, through the legal protection of the family. The production of the feminine as inextricably linked to reproduction and child-rearing, on the one hand, facilitated the state reception of women's movements' proposals to combat VAW by the end of the 20th century; but, on the other hand, it produced a representation of VAW as an attack against family harmony. This runs the risk of excluding from the scope of legal protection those persons whose racialised, engendered and precarious bodies do not correspond to the paradigm of the family woman who deserves protection. This is likely projected into the VAW legislation of the 21st century.Keywords: Violence against women, Ecuador, decolonial feminism, family violence, twentieth century.

Los debates sobre el papel de los medios de comunicación y sobre la libertad de expresión tuvieron una notable presencia en Ecuador durante el gobierno de Rafael Correa, debido a que su administración tuvo una relación de confrontación y crítica a la labor de las principales empresas mediáticas del país. Este trabajo revisa la información que uno de los más antiguos medios impresos del país, Diario El Comercio, publicó en medio de una disputa de lenguaje contencioso con el gobierno por la interpretación de los hechos del 30 de septiembre de 2010, día en que un grupo de policías llevo a cabo una insurrección armada con víctimas fatales, calificada como un intento de golpe de estado por el gobierno de Rafael Correa.

This book masterfully analyzes the last six crises of the global economy. It evidences that the crises are the most important phenomenon in economic life, and it highlights how crucial it is for economists to understand their causes and development. The book coherently combines a thoughtful theoretical analysis of crisis theory with a profound empirical analysis of their stubborn occurrence. Readers will be convinced of the relevance of the global economy as the righteous unit of economic analysis despite the dominance of the national economies. Sergio Cmara Izquierdo, Professor of Political Economy and Head of the Department of Economics, Universidad Autnoma Metropolitana-Azcapotzalco This book is about the crises of the world economy that have occurred from the 1970s to the present day. It makes the specific case that the global economy has experienced six crises during this 50-year period. Crises of the global economy are periods of substantial slowdown in world economic activityas measured by investment, industrial production, trade, or unemploymentin which many national economies are technically in recession. To pose the existence of crises of the global economy implies that the world economy is a real entity with its own dynamics; it implies also that the usual approach that views national economies as the appropriate units of economic analysis has major limitations. The author provides data illustrating the global and regional manifestations of these crises of the world economy, elaborates on the concepts of world economy and economic crisis, and discusses the theories that have been used to explain them. The book shows how these recurrent global crises are discrete, countable phenomena, distinct states of an entity that can be appropriately referred to as the world or global economy, or world capitalism. Jos A. Tapia Granados is Professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, USA. He teaches courses on international political economy, political economy of climate change, and social development. Trained in medicine, public health, and economics, his work and research experiences include positions at the Institute for Social Research of the University of Michigan and the World Health Organization. His papers have appeared in PNAS, Journal of Health Economics, Demography, Research in Political Economy, and other journals

De Gruyter Contemporary Social Sciences provides a platform for disseminating topical analyses of current events, showcasing new theoretical, empirical or applied research across the social sciences and related fields. Through engaging storytelling and in-depth analysis, it presents new work that appeals to a wide audience, and engages with issues of major public interest, highlighting the implications for both policy and professional practice.

"This thought-provoking book examines gang history in the region encompassing West Texas, Southern New Mexico, and Northern Chihuahua, Mexico. Known as the El Paso-Juarez borderland region, the area contains more than three million people spanning 130 miles from east to west. From the badlands-the historically notorious eastern Valle de Juarez-to the Puerto Palomas port of entry at Columbus, New Mexico, this area has become more militarized and politicized than ever before. Mike Tapia examines this region by exploring a century of historical developments through a criminological lens and by studying the diverse subcultures on both sides of the law. Tapia looks extensively at the role of history and geography on criminal subculture formation in the binational urban setting of El Paso-Juarez, demonstrating the region's unique context for criminogenic processes. He provides a poignant case study of Homeland Security and the apparent lack of drug war spillover in communities on the US-Mexico border"--

Is there such a thing as a criminal class? -- San Antonio barrio group origins: micro-locality and community -- The paradoxes of barrio gang networks -- Social spheres and the 1950s barrio subculture -- The barrio landscape expands: the 1960s and 1970s -- The 1980s: prison gangs in Ol' San Antone -- Modern Chicano street gangs: 1990s-2015 -- Lessons from analyzing Chicano gang formations over time